The Limerick Writers’ Centre is delighted to announce George Syranidis (UK) as the winner of the Desmond O’Grady International Poetry Competition 2026 with his winning poem The Cistern. The announcement was made last night during the much‑anticipated Desmond O’Grady Memorial Reading, an event, held in association with Poetry Ireland, that drew a large and warmly engaged audience.
This year’s competition judge, Seán Lysaght, revealed the winning poem during the evening’s proceedings. Although Syranidis was unable to attend in person, he sent a specially recorded video of himself reading the poem — a gesture that created a memorable moment of connection between the poet and those gathered in Limerick.
George Syranidis is a sustainability professional from Athens and Nicosia, now living in London. His writing draws on Cypriot landscapes to explore memory, inheritance, and the pressures of social and environmental change. Speaking at the announcement Seán Lysaght had this to say about the winning poem; "This poem won me over after several readings. It unfolds slowly, like a story told casually, informally without any desire to impress. The speaker talks about their ancestral place in Cyprus, where the arrival of rain is increasingly critical, given the context of climate change and summer droughts. They are also at a distance from the place now, a summer visitor when heat is more searing than ever. The vigil for water becomes also a kind of search for the speaker’s ancestral identity as he now lives elsewhere. The Cistern is very modest in its materials and effects; there is no apparent need to be literary, no self-conscious search for artifice. The poem is entirely comfortable in its chosen mode, and it builds an engaging drama of its own through knowledge of its place and objects."
The Memorial Reading itself proved a tremendous success. Guest readers Seán Lysaght, Jo Slade, and Jamie O’Halloran delivered a sequence of rich, compelling readings that held the audience throughout. They were joined by author Kieran Beville, who offered an engaging outline of his forthcoming book on Desmond O’Grady, adding depth and context to the celebration of O’Grady’s enduring legacy.
A particular highlight of the night was Lysaght’s powerful rendition of The Limerick Sequence, which drew an especially warm and appreciative response.
The winning poem, along with the names of the runner‑up and highly commended entries, is now available at:
www.limerickwriterscentre.com
For further information, interviews, or media enquiries, please contact:
limerickwriterscentre@gmail.com
